Dhanarajan 1

Ethan Dhanarajan

Bertha Crombet

ENC2135

October 2020

Robots on the Rise

A common trope among many sci-fi thriller movies is artificial intelligence going rogue

and turning against the humans in a fight for survival. Fortunately, there isn’t a high likelihood of

an event like that ever occurring in reality. Despite not having rogue A.I., there is a realistic

threat that comes from the creation of more advanced machinery. Hundreds of thousands of jobs

have been lost to robots over several years, and as the robots become more advanced, the number

of jobs they will take increases. As ominous as that prediction may sound, there are other people

who aren’t as fearful, in fact excited at the prospect of robots replacing workers. They believe

that robots taking some jobs will lead to opportunities for jobs that don’t even exist yet. There

are strong arguments for both sides, in the short term, laying off workers for robots will probably

damage many people financially with some not being able to recover. The good news is, should

this create more jobs, there might be more jobs available than before the robot replacement

happened. This essay will provide a rhetorical analysis of two artifacts about robots replacing

human workers along with comparing and contrasting them to determine their effectiveness.

I. Analysis of First Artifact

In the article, “Better Than Human: Why Robots Will — And Must — Take Our Jobs”

Kevin Kelly explains why robots taking over the workplace will lead to a prosperous future for

Americans. His audience pertains to people in the workforce seeing as they are the ones feeling
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most threatened at the thought of being fired and replaced by robots. Kelly is the founding

executive editor of Wired magazine and a student of digital culture. Since he is not an expert on

the subject he loses authority on his opinions and own thoughts but his ethos is credible due to

having knowledge about digital culture. Kelly has also written several articles and books

pertaining to technology showing his passion and intrigue for the information he talks about.

He makes several appeals to logos through examples and historical facts. Before the

Industrial Revolution, a majority of the occupations were made up of farmers. People subsisted

off of their land and what they could grow on it since that was all that was needed to survive.

Kelly states that “Two hundred years ago, 70 percent of American workers lived on the farm.

Today automation has eliminated all but 1 percent of their jobs, replacing them (and their work

animals) with machines” (Kelly). This is an indisputable fact, and it’s not to say that Americans

didn’t go through hardships when their jobs were taken over, but this statement provides a key

message. Even though a majority of jobs were replaced, society evolved and created a plethora

of new jobs that couldn’t have even been conceptualised before the old jobs were taken over.

Kelly also mentions a brand new robot by the name of “Baxter” designed by the same man who

created the Roomba. Baxter is the first robot of its kind to be able to work with other humans,

whereas other robots had to work in isolation because they collided with other workers, Baxter

was able to sense and avoid collision with them (Kelly). This further proves that robots are

becoming more advanced and will eventually be able to do jobs that only humans can currently

do and they’ll do it with even more effectiveness.

Lastly, Kelly appeals to pathos throughout the article by making educated predictions on

what will happen in regards to the future of the American workforce. Since the target audience is
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people who are afraid of losing their jobs to robots, Kelly does his best to assuage those fears by

using the information that he’s gathered and explained to create a simulated timeline of what the

future will look like. He states that, “This postindustrial economy will keep expanding, even

though most of the work is done by bots, because part of your task tomorrow will be to find,

make, and complete new things to do, new things that will later become repetitive jobs for the

robots” (Kelly). By establishing a timeline of events that repeats itself, people are less likely to

be fearful of robots replacing their jobs because they will be able to see a future past that. A

future where they will have brand new jobs that they just hadn’t been able to think of before.

II. Analysis of First Artifact

In the Youtube video, “Robots And AI: The Future Is Automated And Every Job Is At

Risk [Automation, Pt. 1] | AJ+ Docs” Joel Stonington narrates a journey he’s taken interviewing

experts on their thoughts regarding the future of artificial intelligence in the workplace. The

target audience is, similar to the first artifact, people who have fears over losing their jobs to

robots. Stonington is an accomplished journalist, having many of his stories published by big

companies such as the Wall Street Journal and New York magazine. While he himself isn’t an

expert on the topic of artificial intelligence, his information comes from experts and specialists

who have a much greater understanding of these subjects than the average person. These factors

allow the video to appeal to ethos whenever Stonington speaks about a topic, his sources of

information are trustworthy and he is respected in his field making him a credible journalist.

Stonington appeals to logos in this video by evaluating statistics and analyzing experts’

predictions of the future. With robots having already entered the workforce to do manual labor,

it’s only a matter of time before robots become advanced enough to do more and more difficult
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jobs. This puts both blue and white collar workers in a tricky position, it is estimated that by

2030, 800 million jobs worldwide will be at risk while 73 million are at risk in just America

(Stonington). The video emphasizes what kind of jobs will be taken and an approximation of

how soon that future will come to pass. Stonington also references a shift in employment and

types of jobs relating to agriculture throughout the 1900’s. The Industrial Revolution was a

major event in history that didn’t end in unemployment and misery because it implemented just

as many if not more jobs than it had taken away. Despite this, Doctor Jonathan Hurst argues that

the speed and implementation of robotic workers is happening too fast to benefit the workers

who lose their jobs (Hurst). He believes if the government and policy makers plan and prepare

for the future in response to robotic workers then the change can be implemented well, however,

he does not think this is currently the case (Hurst). There are already self driving vehicles and

robots that have higher functioning motor skills, so the claim that a new age of robots replacing

workers in the near future is not that incredible.

Stonington makes many appeals to pathos throughout the video in the form of interviews

with workers who have jobs that are at risk. Seeing the frustration of someone working to make

an honest living and having that chance taken away from them evokes sympathetic or even

empathetic emotions from the viewer. While at the Great American Trucker Show in Dallas,

Stonington meets up with a man known as “Trucker Brown” who is both a Youtuber and a truck

driver. Brown points out several people at the show stating how each person is a trucker who’s

got four or five mouths to feed and need their job as a trucker to be able to do that (Stonington).

While trucking will still be overseen by humans for the foreseeable future, when the time comes

for robots to take over, the effect on those families who rely on that income won’t be able to get
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by unless they can learn new skills. By the time those jobs are taken, it is likely minimum wage

jobs like in fast food won’t even be available anymore so it becomes a huge threat to unskilled

workers. Without some kind of compensation they’ll face heavy financial strain and companies

won’t mind pushing them aside for cheaper and more efficient robots.

III. Comparison of the Two Artifacts

Both artifacts have a similar purpose, but their messages vary. The first artifact informs

the reader about the topic of artificial intelligence but attempts to relieve their audience by

predicting a future that turns out fine for them using past historical events. The second artifact

also informs but the message is more uncertain in terms of the future. While there is a good

chance of more jobs being provided in the future, the rate at which robots are advancing could

become much more problematic and damaging than it was during the Industrial Revolution. The

artifacts also differ in terms of information sources. While the first artifact uses only secondary

sources, the second also uses primary sources to back up the opinions that are formed in the

video. For appeals to ethos, Kelly has his previous works to show that he is experienced in the

subject matter. Likewise, Stonington has previous stories to bolster his credibility but his main

appeals come from the fact that he interviews experts and uses their credibility along with his

own. The appeals to logos are similar, both artifacts reference the same historical time period,

use recent statistics, and make predictions of the future based on the previous information

sources. The appeals to pathos are what most differentiate the two artifacts, the video being able

to use it more effectively than the article is able to. Kelly’s appeals to pathos are few and made in

order to give the audience a sense of ease. Alternatively, Stonington appeals to pathos by
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interviewing a man in a difficult situation. This evokes different emotions from the audience

towards not only the man but others that take part in his struggle.

IV. Conclusion

Artificial intelligence has a large following of people both for and against it. Some feel

fear at the thought of being inferior to a machine and having to live with the consequences.

Others are excited and ready for a change of pace whether it be because they are carefree or a

new age of robot workers won’t affect them. Many videos and articles reference the past and use

current statistics to predict the future, but there are many factors when it comes to a change on a

global scale so there are many possibilities of how things could go. The issue has been a

controversial topic for a while and is still going on today, most artifacts simply do their best to

inform the audience so they can form their own opinions and choose a course of action based on

their newfound knowledge.

 Works Cited

Kelly, Kevin. “Better Than Human: Why Robots Will - And Must - Take Our Jobs.” Better

Than Human: Why Robots Will — And Must — Take Our Jobs, Wired, 24 Dec. 2012, 6:30

a.m., www.wired.com/2012/12/ff-robots-will-take-our-jobs/.

Stonington, Joel. “Robots And AI: The Future Is Automated And Every Job Is At Risk

[Automation, Pt. 1] | AJ+ Docs.” Robots And AI: The Future Is Automated And Every Job

Is At Risk [Automation, Pt. 1] | AJ+ Docs, AJ+, 23 Jan. 2018,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnBAdnNIIXk.